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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Both The Shack and the new building (which we're actually getting sort of close to moving into—finally!) are heated with wood. There's an inefficient potbellied stove in the living room of The Shack that looks cute and feels wonderful if you're cozied up to it, but it barely heats the other rooms in our poorly built and uninsulated old home.

The new building, on the other hand, has the opposite problem—we bought a massive wood furnace and probably went a little overboard. It's made in Minnesota, and it turns out their idea of 'mild fall weather' is at least 30 degrees colder than ours. But so far it works beautifully, and I'm sure we'll quickly get spoiled by the joys of having central heat. I do love to pile on the quilts and blankets and snuggle up in polarfleece come winter, but I'm pretty sure I won't miss waking up to find a thin layer of ice on the water glass next to my bed.

Since we're used to drafts and both get claustrophobic quickly, we figure that once we're moved into our new double-insulated, draft-free living quarters we'll simply keep a couple of windows cracked open all winter long. This sounds like a perfect plan to me—stay warm and yet still have plenty of fresh air. Kind of like when I used to drive around in a convertible in California with the top down and the heater on.

Because the new plumbing has been hooked up in the new building (yes!), we now have both the little woodstove and the big wood furnace going, which means we're burning a lot of firewood. (The little woodstove is so inefficient it actually uses almost as much wood as the furnace.) We usually cut our own firewood, but lately we've been supplementing with these wood blocks that are scraps from a local mill. We have a dumptruck load delivered at a time, and we're discovering that they're really convenient.

When we gather our own firewood, we either cut down dead trees in the woods on our property, or we cut up trees that have fallen over on their own. Once in a while we'll cut down a live tree if it will make more space for the others around it. It's hard but rewarding work. With these blocks, it's nice knowing that we're making good use of something that's essentially waste. And it's even nicer knowing that we can be a little lazy when it comes to keeping our woodpile stocked—especially when it's 28 degrees outside and snowing.

15 comments:

I used to love going to cut firewood with my dad. We had a modern house, with modern heat, but they always preferred a fire in the fireplace "stove". I actually did too. And it was pretty efficient as well. I can't wait to see pictures of the new "building"!

Did you know in Northern California we have Spare the Air days, where, now, you're not even allowed to use your fireplace? They have spies driving around through the neighborhoods, writing citations.Enjoy your new building!!! Eek, how happy.

Sounds very exciting! I used to love having a wood-burning stove, but in Utah they're pretty restricted. (You can only use the stove on certain days, when the air pollution is not too high, and in the winter those days are rare.)

Nowdays I have a gas fireplace which isn't the same, but it does feel good when it's cold. I think you are going to love being cozy with fresh air!

We used to visit friends who were blacksmiths in rural WV and I remember nights where we were snowed in and their potbellied stove was running and my dad would get up in the night to put more wood in the stove - and downstairs was warm and toasty - but upstairs where the children slept ---had about 4 beds in one big room was so cold and we each had about five quilts on us which was great for warmth in bed but sooooo cold when we jumped out of bed.... needless to say bathroom trips were the quickest ever!

Wood heat is SO comforting and warm!! We heat our 100 year-old (drafty) farmhouse in Oregon with wood, too, using its original wood furnace located down in the basement. Heat rises--up through a centrally located outlet on the main floor that is covered with an ornate metal grate, and onward up the staircase to the bedrooms above.

On really cold days I like to straddle the grate letting my nightgown or workshirt billow out with heat--HEAVENLY. :D

We get mill-ends and what-nots from a mill closeby to augment downed trees and other found firewood, but your blocks look perfect!

I enjoy your posts so much--made my first batch of Farmhouse White just today; I always know that I can find inspiration (and so much more) every time I visit.

Not cheatin' just heatin'! All is fair in love and cold weather - we had hoped to change out our very inefficient fireplace for a woodstove but our economy is a bit stagnant right now. Love the practicality of using the waste from a mill!

I grew up with a wood stove, and I even fondly remember all of the time we spent hauling wood to keep it stocked. You didn't by chance happen to purchase a stove from Central Boiler? They are a well-known stove company not too far from where I grew up in MN, and my parents have one of their stoves.

We have a neighbor, right here in our fair city, who heats his home with a woodstove. One sign of autumn is his winter woodpiles going up. When he has extra, he often offers it to us for our fireplace.

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